Oil Painting while Pregnant
3yr
Liz Gridley
A Question for Oil Painters - I recently found out I'm pregnant (exciting!) and have started experimenting with solvent free options - I started with Gamblins solvent free fluid as a replacement for W&N Liquin (the normal oil medium I use to moisten the brush and speed drying time) and I hate it... Does anyone have other suggestions for me to try (I have already gone through my pigments and limited a few harmful ones, and am wearing gloves as a precaution, it's mainly the solvents in mediums I haven't solved yet)
To give more detail, I find the Gamblin medium very fat but somehow doesn't assist in paint movement - fat but tacky? it's a chore to work with. Pictured is one of my pieces to give you an idea of the finish I can get with the W&N Liquin
I can offer some suggestions to help cut down on solvents. I hardly use straight solvents at all anymore. To clean my brushes. I push out as much paint as I can, and then dip the brush into linseed oil, just dip I don’t swirl it to tap it to get it to release more. Then I push out the pigment again. Doing this a few times until it wipes clean really does the trick.
I also use a 50/50 solvent/oil as my main painting medium, so it’s fat but not as fat as pure oil. I find my paintings become pretty much touch dry in a few days more or less. This is the only medium I have been using for my oils, and it’s been working well for me so far. BTW I paint very flat if you’re curious. For solvents gamsol gasses the least, and is considered the most safe but still use good ventilation. Just because you can’t smell it doesn’t mean that you’re not getting gassed.
Gamblin’s solvent free medium is pretty much pure fat, I’ve had the same experiences you’ve had. I think you’re safe using liquin, it’s considered to be nontoxic (as nontoxic as any oil paint medium can be anyway). That said, if you want to try something else give M. Graham’s Walnut Alkyd Medium a go. It’s much more fluid than gamblin’s solvent free medium, and it smells nice and is marked nontoxic.
I hope this is somehow useful. Nice work. Good luck and congrats!
Super helpful thankyou - the M.Graham medium definetly sounds worth investigating thankyou so much - I know once bub is here I will probably revert to Liquin again and just wash my brushes separate to bubs' spaces in the house - but yeah being pregnant for now just has me extra cautious.
hi have you conciderd trying watersoluble oil paints, with them you can use water instead of solvents, i personally use the ones by royal talens there cobra [study variant theres also an artist one with more colors] i really like them but i dont have any comparison with regular oils. Since i never used them and i am still really new to oil paint. I also dont use any medium because they work fine for me without and i dont really understand how i should use them. but there is a painting medium available, i also know that winsor and newton have watersoluble oils but i never tried them. congrats on your pregnancy and i hope my comment helped you out a bit. i do recomment if you concider getting watersolluble oils to check if there save for pregnancy because i dont know for sure.
Water soluble oils are not safer than regular oils. You still need to use solvents and mediums that work with that medium, water alone won’t cut it. I used to work in an art supply store and had to get well versed on it specifically for questions like this.
Hi Mondi, I have! I'm actually painting my 'october challenge / oiltober' pieces with some Royal Talens Cobra and Holbein Aqua Duo water solulable oils. I don't own as many of the colours so I'm hesitant to immediantly replace all my normal oils but in small alla prima works they're performing ok so far - and i discovered they do also have a quick dry medium! The challenge will be trying a larger portrait piece like those above at the end of the month - ill keep an eye out for those W&N ones <3
I just wanted to say that your work is amazing!
I just want to say your paintings are really nice! Personally I only really have experience with a few mediums, but one I have enjoyed using is pure cold pressed linseed oil as my medium (along with odorless mineral spirits if you really need to thin the paint) because it makes it really buttery and smooth, and helps slow drying time. But, I understand you want to speed up the drying time, and unfortunately I have only used Gamblin Galkyd, which I honestly didn’t really love.
Thanks for the suggestion, another person off-proko said to try and use safflower or linseed oil just without the solvent (leave the brush moist in some glad wrap overnight) so that's another option i can try whilst avoiding the solvents
